By No Means

February 02, 2017

The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
Nahum 1:3 a

kit by Kristmess Designs, heart shapes PSE12

Heavenly Father, We have all been the recipients of your amazing grace and mercy, your patience with us, your loving provision in all we need and so much more. Please forgive us for all of the times that we took them for granted, failed to appreciate them, possibly not even noticing or perhaps taking the credit ourselves or giving it to another. You alone are God. There is no one like you, nor will there ever be, and we are so glad of that sure knowledge. Your beauty, perfection, power, and wisdom, all matched with your great love, strike us with such awe that we are speechless. Please fill our hearts and mouths with your praises and let our worship be acceptable in your sight. Please fill us with your Spirit, enabling us to walk in a manner worthy of your Son, never bringing shame upon him or you by our words, deeds or thoughts. We pray in the name of Jesus, our glorious, exalted Savior, Amen.

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About the author (Tricia Berg):

I live in Wisconsin and have been married thirty years. My husband and I have two adult children. I enjoy studying the Bible in depth, writing devotionals and sharing my faith in and love for Jesus.

Having sadly wasted far too much of my early Christian life "going through the motions," I have deep concerns about the state of readiness of the Church for Jesus' return. As that time draws near, it's critical that we take the advice of Jesus and the apostles to "wake up" and examine our walk with our Savior. (Rev. 3:1-6, Rev. 3:14-19, 1Cor. 15:34, 1Thess. 5:5-8, Mark 13:32-37, Rom. 13:11-14, 2Cor. 13:5, 1John 2:28-29) Now is the time to make changes if something is lacking in the expression of our love for God - to be sure our lamps are filled with oil (Matt. 25:1-13, 2Cor. 5:14-15).

We would be wise to keep in mind that "what God is preparing" is for "those who LOVE Him." (John 14:15-26, John 15:1-21, Eph. 5:1-33, 1Cor. 2:9, 2Tim. 2:19-22) If being a disciple of Jesus were as simple as making a verbal confession, then Paul would not have said that he had not yet attained what he sought (but shortly before his death, he expressed confidence that he would receive it.) (Phil. 3:8-21, 2Tim. 4:8) Paul was not "earning salvation" by obeying His Lord. He was proving his faith was genuine. (John 15:8, Jam. 1:12, Heb. 6:11-12, Heb. 10:23-39, Heb. 12:1-29, 1Cor. 9:24-27, Col. 3:23-24, 1Pet. 1:6-9, 2Pet. 3:11-18, Rev. 3:10-13)

For steadfast Christians, times are going to get tough as the meanings of "freedom" and "love" are transformed by society to include many behaviors that God has clearly indicated are unacceptable to Him. (2Pet. 2:18-19, Jude 1:3-23, Gal. 5:13-25, Rom. 12:1-2, 1John 2:15-17) We can expect to be pressured to cave in, or if we refuse, to be ridiculed and even vilified, for standing firm for biblical values by those who are being deceived. (Eph. 6:10-20, 2Tim. 3:12-13, Matt. 5:10-12, Gal. 6:7-9, Rev. 2:18-29, Rom. 1:18-31, Col. 3:5-10, 1Pet. 1:14-19) We're called to speak the truth in love, and we must do BOTH without redefining either. (Eph. 4:15-24, 1Cor. 15:58, Rom. 12:9)

Thanks for meeting me here and allowing me to share my thoughts with you on the application of the Scriptures to the times we live in. I post a daily Bible verse digital scrapbook layout as well as occasional articles, in which I cite extensive Scripture references. You can hover over those cites to see the full verse(s), and click on them to open them in a new tab in your browser. Most articles are available as PDF downloads. Additional devotionals can be found on my other blog, Clothe Yourselves.

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Devotionals

His Story

This life is short, but there is One (and ONLY one) who offers eternal life, and His name is Jesus. Here you will find encouragement and Scriptural inspiration for your walk with our Beloved Savior. Because we believers are being prepared during this one lifetime to spend eternity with our mighty, living God in the next, nothing could be more important. All else will fade away.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17

For those who are unfamiliar with scrapbooking, the pages made are called “layouts.” The digital scrapbook "world" has a regular practice where they choose a “layout of the day” to feature (which is an honor). The name of this page is “Layout for Today” because there is one per day (but the words “of the” [day] were intentionally not used, because the point is to bring honor and glory to God, not to any person).